Earlier this month freshman Assemblymember Mariko Yamada announced her support and co-authorship of legislation introduced by Senator Mark Leno that would provide all Californian’s with universal health care.
Said Assemblymember Yamada during the press conference:
Part of the budget deal that was reach back in February put a number of propositions on the ballot. Propositions 1A, 1B, 1C, 1D, and 1E were specifically related to the budget itself and their passage in part will determine whether that particular budget was balanced or not. Of course, since that time, the state has announced that regardless of whether these items are passed in May, there is an $8 billion budget deficit. Despite this groups are lining up on both sides of many of these ballot initiatives. Many argue that they are “hastily written in secret with no public hearings or analysis.” The consequences of passage of them would outweigh the benefit of a balanced budget.
Today in San Francisco, the California Supreme Court will hear oral arguments from the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR), ACLU, and Lambada legal challenging the November 5 passage of Proposition 8 which sought to overturn the Supreme Court ruling from last year granting rights to same sex partners.
On Vanguard Radio last night, the Vanguard spoke to Elizabeth Gill Staff Attorney from the ACLU in San Francisco and Natalie Wormeli from the Yolo County ACLU. They informed the Vanguard that the central argument that will be made comes down to the fact that the California Constitution does not permit the fundamental constitutional rights of a minority to be stripped away by a simple majority vote.
In theory the requirement in California to obtain the consent of two-thirds of the legislature to vote for a budget sounds like an idea that would promote consensus building and bipartisanship. I wish I could say that was in the intent, but it was more mundane. The intent was to prevent tax increases from being enacted. For many years it has accomplished exactly that; however as time has gone on, it has exacted a higher and higher price. It has prevented the type of wholesale structural changes that we need for reform to take place.
It has led to gridlock, forcing budget after budget to be adopted late. It has led to unnecessary delay, wasted time, and worse yet, in a crisis outright paralysis.
CaliforniaAfter an all night session – 45 hours for the entire session – the State Senate voted early this morning 27 to 12 to approve a massive state budget that includes spending cuts, tax increases, and borrowing money to close to $40 billion deficit. California has been at a standstill for the last five days as legislators grappled over a state budget. Governor Schwarzenegger and legislative leaders struck a deal with Senator Maldonado in exchange for providing the third needed vote to pass the state budget. The three Republican votes for the state budget came from Senator Abel Maldonado (R-Santa Maria), Senator Dave Cogdill (R-Modesto), and Senator Roy Ashburn (R-Bakersfield).
CaliforniaIt is ironic that Sacramento chose yesterday to honor Captain Chesley Sullenberger who heroically managed to land his imperiled aircraft into the Hudson River and averted disaster by saving his crew. It is ironic because the plane analogy is a metaphor for what is happening right now in Sacramento. In this case the state is out of fuel and needs emergency money in order to land and avert a crisis.
As Senator Cox spoke yesterday on the floor of the Senate, he made reference to a number of metaphors including a correction of Senator Calderon’s botched reference to “Chicken Little.” Senator Cox spoke about the straw that broke the camel’s back, implying that the state taxpayers could no longer bear the load of the tax burden (a tax burden that by most measures ranks somewhere in the middle of the country).
CaliforniaAbout the last person I expected to be talking about on the Vanguard was Senator Abel Maldonado. Maldonado represents among other places my former hometown of San Luis Obispo. I remember him as the Mayor of Santa Maria, the moderate Republican who defeated the right wing racist Mayor of that town. He rose to prominence as a moderate, often casting the decisive vote on budgets.
He’s about the last person I expected to be holding up the budget, but here he is doing just that. And it appears to be all personal from where I sit. It has nothing to do with policy. Nothing to do with what’s good for this state. It is all about what’s good for Abel.
CaliforniaValentine’s Day came and went, and still there was no budget. On deep into the night it continued, desperately trying to find one more Republican Senator brave enough to end this nightmare, to cast the yes vote, and to save the state of California from fiscal turmoil the likes of which it has not seen before in this lifetime or many others. And yet on Sunday, there were no heroes.
First, the word came that Dave Cox, the Senator from the Sacramento Area could be the third vote. But late on Saturday night or Sunday morning, he said no.
CaliforniaAt the outset, I should qualify this analysis as saying that it could change in a final budget bill or could get thrown out the window if there is no budget deal.
For this year, the budget has a $2.4 billion reduction for what was budgeted in the 2008-09 Budget Act. It has a $5 billion reduction in Prop 98 Funding from 2008-09 to 2009-10.
CaliforniaGiven the fact that this is the bicycle capital of the world, I risk a lot by saying this, but the priorities of people are a bit off in this country. Originally the state legislature was going to meet at 9 am this morning to vote on the budget agreement.
However there is one problem. Tomorrow in Davis there will be the Amgen Bike Tour. In Sacramento that will be today from 1 pm to 4 pm. There will be 100,000 people in downtown Sacramento today. Not of course to watch the budget vote, but to watch Lance Armstrong.
CaliforniaI rarely comment in this space about comments to other posts, but given that I am trying to bring together multiple threads into a single article, it actually works quite well.
The anonymous commenter said:
Last night, Lt. Governor John Garamendi spoke at the Davis home of UC Davis Law Professor John Oakley and County Clerk Freddie Oakley. Garamendi who formerly served as a State Senator for the City of Davis is a Democratic candidate for Governor in 2010. Thank you to my wife Cecilia who took the photos and recorded the speech in my stead as I was under the weather. Here are some of the Lt. Governor’s remarks.
We’re in the process of making some absolutely crucial decisions about the future of California. I don’t think we really understand how important this period is that we’re living.
CaliforniaIn July, roughly 8,500 University of California (UC) service workers went out on strike in protest of poverty wages. At this point there is no agreement between the workers and the UC Regents. Now, a mediated settlement has been presented to the UC administration. Senator Leland Yee, who joined workers represented by the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME 3299) on the picket lines in July, is calling on the University to accept this new proposal.
CaliforniaIn my new job, I get a lot of press releases from statewide officials. On a Friday evening I was not really expecting big news, although it has been an unusual week in the Capital with the budget battle waging. Still you have to believe that if the Attorney General is sending out a Friday at 5 pm press release, he’s hoping to bury the news.
In General the Attorney General defends statewide propositions that get challenged in the legal system, regardless of his personal beliefs. And there might be some wiggle room here since you have two conflicting aspects of the California constitution.
On Monday, California formalized what the voters had done on November 4, casting its 55 electoral votes to President-Elect Barack Obama.
The ceremonial procedure took place on the floor of the California Assembly where electors gathered from across the state along with numerous elected officials. The media turnout for the event was somewhat lower than normal because the Republicans chose the same time slot to announce their budget priorities.
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